ARDMORE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL Bellevue, WA
NEX+GEN ACADEMY Dekker/Perich/Sabatini “Fun, friendly, and flexible,” the judges said of nex+Gen Academy, an autonomous magnet school on the campus of Del Norte High School in Albuquerque, NM. The school, which focuses on project-based, cooperative, high-tech learning, was cited for what the judges called its “interesting flow of learning spaces throughout the building.” The design features glass-walled studio-style classrooms that surround and overlook a large public gathering space. The transparent walls not only fill the spaces with natural light but also provide visual connectivity between them. What’s more, the judges noted, this transparency allows students to successfully work unsupervised. An impressive array of collaborative spaces range in scale from small breakout areas that accommodate six to eight students to a spacious lobby with café-style seating. These spaces provide “a continuous learning environment where everyone is engaged across the space,” the judges said. “As a result, the building
GRAND PRIZE AWARDS, FALL 2011 Early Childhood/Elementary School
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• NAC|Architecture for Ardmore Elementary School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
High School
• Dekker/Perich/Sabatini for nex+Gen Academy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
College/University
• EwingCole for Zankel Music Center— Skidmore College . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
becomes almost 100 percent efficient” in terms of space for educational programming. “Kids will go find the spaces,” they added. “These look like places where you would learn in the real world, places where you would get together and talk.” www.learningbydesign.biz | L e a r n i n g B y D e s i g n F A L L 2 0 1 1
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